In The Life of Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Banner of Truth), biographer Iain Murray notes the Welsh minister preached to thousands, mentored a young J.I. Packer, and met the queen of England. But Murray also notes what mattered most to a man many consider one of the greatest preachers of the 20th century. “The two greatest meetings in my life were both prayer meetings,” Lloyd-Jones said. “I would not have missed them for the world.” 

Os Guinness, 71, spent the first decade of his life in China, where his parents were missionaries eventually forced out by Communists who seized power in 1949. Guinness became a journalist and a scholar, settling in the United States in 1984 and gaining fame as a noted speaker and the author or editor of more than 30 books. His latest is A Free People’s Suicide: Sustainable Freedom and the American Future (IVP, 2012). Here are edited excerpts of our interview before Patrick Henry College students.

This is a true story: Aaron Hartzler is the oldest son of a Midwest Baptist preacher and a fervent mother who gave herself wholeheartedly to family and good works. Both parents included their oldest son in ministry from an early age, making use of his dramatic and musical talents. Throughout his early life, Aaron faithfully attended church, Christian school, and Bible camp, where he loved acting out object lessons for rapt young audiences.